Accidents involving motor vehicles and railroad trains are a serious problem. In the United States alone over 5,000 such accident occur annually. For example, a report issued by the United States Department of Transportation in April, 1989 indicated that during 1987 5,859 such accidents occurred at public rail crossings. Those accidents resulted in 2,313 injuries and 598 fatalities.
Approximately half of these accidents occurred at crossings that lacked warning signals. Furthermore, only about 31 percent of the crossings in the United States have such signals. It is generally believed that an increase in the number of such signals would decrease the incidence of such accidents. This is particularly true in the case of rural crossings where, due to the lack of street lights, the visibility is reduced. Unfortunately, the cost of installing such warning signals would be prohibitive, especially at rural crossings, which, in many instances do not have electric power easily available. Given the higher cost of installing electrical systems at many rural crossings as well as the low traffic levels at such crossings, it is likely that many of such crossings will not have active warning devices in the near future.